A few weeks before its start, the Cruïlla Festival has announced the incorporation of the Silent Disco stage, a new sound and light installation that will feature a program of local DJs. The structure arrives for the first time in Barcelona after premiering at the popular Burning Man Festival, held in Nevada (United States), and represents the first collaboration between Cruïlla and Fira Tàrrega. This was explained this Tuesday by its director, Jordi Herreruela, according to the ACN. This year's edition will be held from July 10 to 13 in the Fòrum Park with big names such as Pet Shop Boys, Avril Lavigne, Amaral, The Kooks, and María Becerra.
The Silent Disco stage will be active for four hours each day and will be located in the Loophole, an artistic light installation inspired by the geometric shape of the Earth's magnetic field. The proposal joins the already announced stages: Estrella Damm, Occident, Vueling, and Johnnie Walker, where the 57 programmed groups will perform, and the Cruïlla Comèdia by Vallformosa Stage, where several comedians will perform.
Beyond the musical and humorous program, the festival has warmed up by presenting several initiatives linked to the sectors of art, entertainment, innovation, and sustainability. The Fòrum Park will once again be for four days the showcase of several artistic proposals, with a large digital museum on the Estrella Damm stage where works by artists such as Josue Ibáñez, Six n Five, Baugasm, Studio Males & Setreset Films, and PJ Richardson will be exhibited. On the other hand, the Occident stage will feature the intervention of Lluís Danés. In parallel, a new edition of the Street Arts contest has been programmed and a tasting of the Gargar Festival in the village area where two of its artists, Bublegum and Jofre Oliveras, will be in charge of painting murals. The Poblenou Urban District will also have a presence during the festival, bringing several artistic initiatives.
The Cruïlla 2024 edition will feature for the first time a program dedicated to podcasting with a live audience. The Torre Diagonal One Auditorium will become the new Cruïlla Podcast stage with a program divided into two afternoon sessions. Tickets will be free.
Following the line of past editions, Cruïlla will once again work to reduce conventional disposable packaging. For this reason, all packaging that can be replaced (plates, bowls, boxes…), will be substituted by returnable tableware and cutlery made with compostable materials. In addition, the festival has created a waste management protocol that takes into account all phases of the festival: assembly, activity, and disassembly. The event will also encourage artists to apply good practices in the field of circularity and environmental care. For this reason, they will be asked to, as far as possible, comply with recommendations regarding transport, use of packaging, technical aspects, logistics, or catering. As a novelty this edition, Cruïlla collaborates with Aigües de Barcelona to conduct an analysis of the festival's water impact.
In innovation, the festival will feature the presence of a humanoid robot from Pal Robotics, a pilot test of geolocation with mixed reality with Skidattl, an implementation test of the smart ticket, an initiative created by Oratrex that aims to replace the PDF ticket with a digital ticket, and finally, the Cruïlla Festival will also be part of the Digital Twins project, promoted by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). As in other editions, Cruïlla has once again launched the Sustainable Challenge, an open call for startups that work to reduce the environmental impact of festivals. This year it will collaborate with emerging companies Vyta and Abonokm0.